


Recruitment

by lilolilyrae



Series: How To Love [1]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, clintcoulson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-07-11 04:52:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7029364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilolilyrae/pseuds/lilolilyrae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i love how there's a 69 in the wordcount right now :P (yep I'm (not) funny like that)</p>
        </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was dark outside, and the archer was being chased.

Any other person wouldn't even have noticed his follower, but Clint Barton could see enough with only the moonlight illuminating the streets.

He ducked behind a container so he was able to turn around and check for any suspicious activities.  
The dark silhouette of a man whom Clint had noticed now an hour ago was still behind him.  
As his follower passed a streetlight, he got a closer look at him.  
The man was wearing a suit- dark grey, the perfect colour to disappear in the darkness of the nocturnal city.

 

Clint didn't think that the man belonged to the bodyguards of the drug lord whom he had last assassinated. These men usually wore all black and would rather try to intimidate him than sneak up on him.

Plus the drug lord had already been killed, right now those people should have better things to do than get revenge.  
(Hopefully. Being tortured was never pleasant, but when someone wanted information you could usually rely on them leaving you alive. If they wanted vengeance however...)

 

Neither did the man look like another hired gun, sent to take the archer out because his hits disgruntled or scared someone.  
Mercenaries only wore suits when a cover required it, those clothes restricted their motion too much for their line of work.

And if it had been a merc, he would have already tried to take him out, not caring about shots being fatal and his death being painless.

 

No, this person screamed government, and Clint would rather not be tortured for information he didn't have, or forced to kill people for reasons he couldn't get behind.

 

The archer wondered why his chaser hadn't given up yet.

Usually, he was quite good at shaking a tail, but this one just wouldn't dissappear.

 

Clint was exhausted.

The last time he had eaten was before he'd shot the guy a day earlier, and his water rations were nearly used up.

He considered simply ignoring his tail and going to his 'nest' the way he'd planned, but he knew: even if he managed to get away with food and water rations, it would be unlikely that he'd be able to take his spare bow, plus he'd lose a perfectly untouched hiding spot.

 

No, he'd have to try and get away from his follower, and if that really didn't work... He felt the gun heavy in its holster. He'd always preferred using a bow to firearms, but it was nearly useless for short distance fights, at least if he didn't want to go and try to stab him with an arrow.  
And it's never a good idea to turn up with an (arrow-) knive to a gunfight.

 

Clint decided to go further towards the edge of the city.  
While he'd usually try to shake a tail downtown, he suspected that the guy behind him could probably deal better with the chaos of the city than with the seedy outskirts, government vibe and suit and all.  
And in the open Clint might actually be able to use his bow.

Plus, he obviously didn't manage to get rid of him here, so it couldn't really get worse.

 

After being chased over corrugated iron roofs and through dirty byways, nearly falling off a fire escape and in the end being shot in the leg, Clint felt he should reconsider that statement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love how there's a 69 in the wordcount right now :P (yep I'm (not) funny like that)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so so sorry that i was gone for so long, I had stress with school and then i was on vacation for a month and now it took me quite a while to figure out what i had already written and where i had planned this story to go in general, and then i basically re-wrote this chapter because I didn't like the way I had written it before... but now I finally finished this chapter, and have a rough draft for a follow up story, yay! also plans for my Sherlock stories, but I really don't know when I'll get to them :s

 

The suit disarmed him.

  
Clint knew he wasn't ready to die.  
But he was so exhausted. His fight or flight instinct seemed to have turned itself off.

Maybe-an-agent-suit came closer again and moved his hand towards the bullethole in his leg.  
He was all too familiar with this kind of torture. Adding pain to an already aching wound.  
He wasn't that easy, he wouldn't break- well, it wasn't as if there was anything he knew and could tell the guy anyways.

But then instead of pressing into the open flesh, suitguy started to take care of the injury.

Clint didn't quite know what was happening, but he knew he shouldn't get too hopeful.

After sporadically cleaning the laceration and stopping the bleeding, the suit picked up Clint's gun from where he had dropped it on the ground. Clint didn't care too much, it was to be expected after all, and he stole the gun from his latest mark anyway.

Then the Agent picked up his bow.  
While, intellectually, he knew that it was just as to-be-expected and unavoidable as the gun- it still hurt to see his most beloved possession go.  
It was his favorite and he only had it on him because he had intended to be on the run for the next months or so and to leave most of his nests behind.  
He had had this bow since he had left the circus.  
It being destroyed would break Clint's heart. Or what was left of it, anyway.

 

"I don't know much about these," the guy said and held up the bow, "do you need to disassemble it for transportation?"

For a second Clint thought he had hallucinated the last words.  
The Agent looked serious  
"Yes." Clint said after a moment. He was still cautious, he knew he couldn't trust the guy. But he wouldn't let go a chance to keep his bow either.

When handed the bow, he immediately grabbed it, not caring that he probably tore the stitches in his leg with the sudden movement.

With a last glance in Phil's direction, he started to dismantle the bow.

 

 

"Why are you doing that?"  
Clint looked at maybe-agent, the pieces of is bow carefully put aside.

"Well, I am still armed and I do think I incapacitated you enough so you won't try to take off. I had no reason not to."

"No, I- I mean yes, but you also don't _have_ a reason to-"  
Clint didn't even know what exactly it was that the Agent was doing, except for the obvious- giving him his bow- and for just being _nice_.

  
And he felt like either would make him sound stupid if he said it out loud.  
He was so not used to people being nice.  
  
Also, given that the guy did shoot him first... yeah, Clint should totally not consider the guy nice. It all just showed how fucked up his world view and shit was by now.

"I do think I have a reason,"  
suitguy said, slowly

  
"I am Agent Phillip Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Security Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, and-"

"That sounds like someone really wanted to have that called shiiiield"  
Clint snickered  
  
Suitguy- Agent Coulson- didn't react, but Clint could swear that he could see the guy's eyes twinkle.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that"

So the guy was government. Clint didn't know whether he should be relieved- now he knew what to expect – or downcast because of /what/ to expect.

"Well, Homeland- security- how do you even remember all of these? That's worse than the good ol' three-letter-agencies... Anyways, what secrets do you guys think I have?"

"I really don't know that, or if you have any at all," the Agent said softly, "We don't want you dead, nor did I come after you to imprison or torture you. We know what you are capable of, Hawkeye, and I want to recruit you.""

Clint was puzzled.  
Being forced to assassinate someone in the name (or just on behalf) of the US-government was nothing new, and while he didn't expect it to happen to himself- archers weren't the typical government-y type- it had been within his expectations.

  
What bedazzled him was the "recruit you".  
He had seen some and heard of many other mercs being caught, how they were beaten and held captive and blackmailed.  
You did not _recruit_  a mercenary.

Phrases like "we could use your skills for something", "we want you to kill...", "follow orders and you won't get caged- or worse".

Recruitment sounded like more than a one-time-deal in excange for his life.

Clint didn't know what to say about all that, so he picked the one other thing that had caught his attention.

  
"you or they?"

"sorry?"  
From all the questions about the intentions of his agency that agent suitguy might have expected, this was clearly not one of them.

"You said your agency knows what I'm capable of, but you said that _you_ want to recruit me"  
Clint didn't even know what he thought he'd get from that question, apart from some time to think maybe.

Then again he always tried to flirt his way out of bad situations. His friend Natasha had once said that he could be glad that it mostly wasn't noticeable that he was trying to flirt.

The Agent clearly didnt know what Clint wanted to hear.  
"I- yes, I mean, I personally want to recruit you, you're my mission, but my agency stands behind my decision due to your skills...?"

Okay, a no to flirting then.

"what do you fancy suitguys want with a criminal like me tho?"

The agent's lips twitched, probably the equivalent of a smile for a stony af government agent.  
"We are not the CIA, we don't need you to have a cv without gaps to be one of us, and I'd like to say that we talk first and shoot later, though I guess what just happened with you does seem contradictory"

 

"Nah, I get that was the only way to catch me" Clint shrugged "what I still don't get tho is _why_ you wanted to catch me?"

  
"You're the worlds greatest marksman, and you only take out individuals who had either already been on our list or in retrospect turn out to be high-end criminals.  
I'm certain both parties would profit from a collaboration"

Coulson's com beeped, he looked at it briefly only to shift his focus back at Clint without answering it.  
He smiled his tiny smile again.  
"You deserve a second chance, Hawkeye"

 

 

Mere moments later, the extraction team was there and Clint didn't have time to think about what had just happened.   
He was being handcuffed, his bow taken away- Coulson taking it out of the woman's hand who had grabbed it was the last thing Clint saw of the guy before he left his line of sight. 

Sitting in a heli, with no way to get away, Clint considered his options.  
He knew that 'SHIELD' (that, at least, was a name he could manage to remember) wouldn't let him go or get away in the foreseeable future.   
And they had been able to catch him once, he'd never feel as safe again as he did up to now.  
He'd used to feel unimpeachable, no-one ever managing to trace him, always at least ten steps ahead of whoever was chasing him...  
Paranoia might make him even more secure now, but it wouldn't be half the fun. 

Maybe after some time with the agency, he'd have intel that would get him an advantage... Allow him to be on his own again...   


Either way, for now he had no choice but to stay where he was.  
But as soon as he'd be sent to take someone out he didn't figure deserve it, he'd run.

And maybe, just maybe, if there were more people there like suitguy Coulson, he wouldn't even have to...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter isn't beta read yet, tell me if I made any mistakes :)
> 
> virtual hug to whoever sees the cap2 phrase cameo thingy :D
> 
> btw i just had to have nat included somehow even tho i'm still not sure whether Clint knows her already in this verse... well if I happen to write something paradoxical in a future chapter, remind me to change the line here somehow :s
> 
> come fangirl with me on [tum](http://lilolilyrae.tumblr.com)[blr](http://lilolilyr.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> beta read by [crazybadgirl45](http://archiveofourown.org/users/crazybadgirl45)


End file.
